PodHubUK Podcasts for the Month of November 2024

  ...a roundup of our month of podcasting. Links to the team, communities and podcast homes on the net at the foot, so scroll down!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 826 - Special Edition Incoming
Saturday 2nd November
Steve and I are here with a catchup show during which we unusually talk about quite a bit about recent tech news, run through the highlights of my HMD Skyline review, nerd-out on potential ROM-baking action, consider alternative cases - and a bunch more besides!

Whatever Works
Episode 215 - Sicilian Sausages!
Monday 4th November
Aidan and I are back with another compendium of compelling content, curtly cheap as chips, to compromise your comprehension! (He says, keeping away from the letter S!) We scoff a Phal with a Spork, cook some 8-year old eggs, alarm ourselves with volume issues, drill our porcelain pushbikes at Esso and loads more chaos like that! Do join us for an hour, available now in the usual places 🤩

Phones Show Chat
Episode 827 - New York Pixel Decision
Sunday 10th November
Steve and I welcome Andy Hagon back for a natter for an hour about all things mobile phone - and find out what he's been using and thinking, about the latest tech. Mike Warner drops in (virtually!) to explain again about Google's soft/firmware Play elements, I have a look at the budget Moto G85 and Steve's (mostly) loving the Nokia N93 in Bygone Beauties.

Projector Room
Episode 174 - An Alien Substance
Wednesday 13th November
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with a look at the stuff we've been watching blended with your stuff too. We Blitz the Living Dead, Kidnap Spiders on the 3rd Rock as we focus on William Shatner, p...p...pick up The Penguin as he Wolfs around with The Substance and even end up as Aliens in the Romulus lab. Loads of fun as always, so do join us!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 828 - Samsung and Apple Realisations
Sunday 17th November
Steve and I are joined this week by Zachary Kew-Denniss so we find out what he's been up to in the last 2 years, since he last chatted with us. Mostly Android/Samsung but has dabbled for a month with iOS. I'm looking forward to more Samsung stuff arriving and Steve's busy sorting out the Surface Duo with Android 15. Loads more, as always so do join us for a while.

Whatever Works
Episode 216 - Single Jingle Mingle!
Monday 18th November
Aidan and I are back once more with our fortnightly hour of trinkets, linklets and sprinklets for your delight and trauma! From Scarlett Socks and Oral Orbitkeys, Nappa bags and Turtle Wax to CrossCountry Casio, Cats and coffee - it's all here and oodles more! Available now in the usual places, so do join us! Whatever Worked, Works!

Phones Show Chat
Episode 829 - The Pixel 9 Pro Fold Arises
Sunday 24th November
Steve and I are joined this week by Shane Craig, so as you'd imagine, we delve into all things folding/flipping, new and old. We chat about Google's plans for Android/ChromeOS, Desktop Modes, new and old, and oodles more! Available now from the usual places. Stay Nerdy, My Friends!

Projector Room
Episode 175 - The Jackal and the Joker
Wednesday 27th November
Gareth, Allan and I are back again with another of our fortnightly roundups of all things film, cinema and TV. This time we get Exposed to an Indecent Proposal, Say Nothing (much) about Gladiator II, Flopalopolis with Megalopolis and become the only podcast in the world to speak warmy of Joker: Folie à Deux! Loads of other chat and banter as usual, so do join us!

The Podcasts

PodHubUK - Phones Show Chat - The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - Tech Addicts

The MeWe Community Groups (follow the links to join up)
Phones Show Chat & The Phones Show - Whatever Works - Chewing Gum for the Ears - Projector Room - PSC Photos - PSC Videos - PSC Classifieds - Tech Addicts

The Team
Ted Salmon - Steve Litchfield - Aidan Bell - Gareth Myles - Allan Gildea

Owning Mahowny (2003)

This is an excellent film directed by Richard Kwietniowski depicting the true story of Dan Mahowny, a Canadian bank employee with an addiction to gambling. Put the two together and you can see where this likely goes, even if you don't know the story from the early 1980s from the news back then.

Philip Seymour Hoffman carries the film and is in pretty much every frame of it as the Dan, struggling with his addiction and financial woes. We follow Dan closely as he weedles around within his job, smartly defrauding the bank and its customers of large sums of money, then gambling it away, paying off debts, winning loads in a lucky streak at two casinos, then losing it again, as addicted gamblers are likely to do.

In amongst all that there's a dedicated girlfriend, firstly catching on to what's happening - as he makes excuse after excuse about why he's not around for her or any kind of life outside of his work. Then, hoping Dan will wake up and recognise what's happening to him before the world closes in on him and it's too late. She, Belinda, is played nicely by Minnie Driver, though she's not in the film for a great amount of time.

John Hurt plays the manager of one of the casinos very nicely too as we follow him. Firstly overjoyed that a big spender is losing all his money, getting concerned that he's then going off to Las Vegas instead of to his establishment, then anxious as Dan starts to win big in his casino, his boss breathing down his neck in turn - and also as the suave host, pampering and tending to the wishes of, or at least trying to, one of his big spending customers.

The supporting cast do a fine job as well with some humour often thrown in. One character is Dan's small-time money lender suddenly out his depth as things take off - and also a particular employee of the casino jumping around trying hard to show Dan the error of his ways. There's a tapestry of characters and situations which Dan is holding at arm's length as he orchestrates his rise and fall. The 100 minutes or so fly past, for some of it I was perched on the edge of my seat as I felt Dan's stress!

As time goes on he steals more and more, learns very quickly how to cover his tracks, survives a bank audit by quick thinking and confidence tricks and keeps a low profile by dressing shabbily and keeping his old clapped out car. It's almost as if he really isn't interested in the money per-se but rather the process of the gambling. And I guess that's the point. He's sometimes abrupt and rude to people around him, including the long-suffering Belinda, but in a quiet, reserved way, encouraging people to trust him and think the best of him as he covers his tracks.

It's really nicely shot - the camera often lingers on close-ups of Dan's face in amongst all the stress, anxiety and mayhem. There's an explainer during the end credits letting the viewer know what happened to Dan after the end of the film, for those who don't know, and the outcomes are not really that straight forward either. So perhaps if you don't know the truth of it all, read up afterwards and enjoy the thriller/character study of a man in turmoil as-is. Recommended. It's not on streaming services that I could find just now but it's not a new film so second-hand DVDs are your friend. I saw it in CeX for £2.50 today.

Apartment 7A (2024)

Apartment 7A tells the story leading up to the beginning of Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby (1968). A prequel. The opening scenes in Rosemary's Baby have been smartly dovetailed by the new film, over half a century later, to make the story seem continuous. So if you've not seen either, it might be a good idea to watch Apartment 7A first for the chronology and storyline!

Julia Garner, as we've now come to expect, is excellent in the role of Terry, a hopeful dancer coming to New York for fame, fortune and dancing! In a scene assured to make the viewer frown and take a sharp intake of breath, she knackers her ankle at an audition. On the way home she feels sick, outside the apartment building which is also the setting of Rosemary's Baby later. The friendly couple, Minnie and Roman, who try to do so much to help Rosemary later, take Terry in, make her their tenant in a spare apartment next to theirs and spookily arrange things around her to make her dreams come true - much like they will later do for Rosemary. At a price - and not a financial one! She becomes their all-but adopted daughter. They say they are happy to, as they never had kids of their own.

So now the spooky stuff starts to notch up as Terry is exposed to a string of weird incidents and disturbing visual stuff, all the time being fed consumables by the elderly couple - just like they later do for Rosemary. The building is eerily equipped with sinister connections between apartments, dark corners, strange stuff going on within its walls - you get the picture! And I'm now trying desperately not to spoil anything - assuming squarely that you have not seen either of these films.

Rosemary's Baby is a fabulous demonstration of suspense and anxiety from the maestro director of which Hitchcock would be proud and Mia Farrow attacks the titular role flawlessly. Rosemary and Terry both deteriorate physically and mentally as they are exposed to similar difficulties in the building. Slightly differently for Terry, as she is lonely and alone, whereas Rosemary is happily married - so less dependent on the older couple. In fact, the young couple are often annoyed by their interfering ways much earlier in the film than the lonely Terry is in Apartment 7A. But the characters are both, on the face of it, horribly manipulated by those they trust around them as paranoia creeps in as the similar exposure of what's going on in the building lead to not-so-different climaxes.

Because one follows directly on from the other, clearly the continuity is there to enjoy and whichever way round you watch them, by the time you see the second one, you'll know the secrets of the building and trappings, so that makes it a bit difficult not to create a spoiler for yourself! But both films are really well done, I think. The classic Rosemary's Baby is matched in many ways by the new Apartment 7A, but also different in others. The acting by all players in both films is top-notch and they are both beautifully shot, making good use of the sets. They are both filled with chills, terror and horror! But watch the new one first! Both are out there in streaming services as I write.

Death Bell (2008)

Here's a Korean treat from back in 2008. A kind of slasher, gory thriller that they often produce so well over there. Originally called Gosa, it's about a bunch of students in a school who are trapped by, well, they don't know who/what, with a couple of their teachers and a janitor kicking around.

The school tannoy has been taken over by the assailant and they/it has started to announce, one-by-one, a bunch of sadistic 'puzzles' which the group must solve in order to stop the grizzly murder of each of them (which they soon find out, is in order of their 'ranking' in the school exams)! Hang on in there though, as there is some logic to all this and the satisfying reveal in the finale puts all the pieces together.

In the meantime, we, along with the students, have no idea what's what, why or whom - but get together and try to solve the puzzles, revealing clues as to what the heck it's all about! The murders and traps are somewhat inventive and there's lots of blood and gore being hurled around in the process as they are picked off one-by-one, with fairly good visual effects. Oh yes, they are not allowed to leave the school or they get killed, this is an evening, so nobody is around from outside (though I did wonder why parents didn't wonder why their kids had not come home!) and all land/cellphones have been cut off!

So yes, it creates a theatre of gore which, on the face of it, dubiously and at a stretch, nobody can get away from. Why the kids don't just all stay together in the same room so they can't be picked off, I don't know. But let's not nitpick - as plot holes there may be, but it doesn't take away the fun of it all.

We are led to wonder if there's something supernatural and ghostly going on as a pupil who had been murdered in the school a couple of years back kind of appears to some of the students, but it's exam time and the students are under a lot of stress - so we're not really sure if the visions of the 'ghost' are real or down to some anxiety/mental health crisis. Certainly not all the students see the visions.

I won't reveal any more as it will spoil the outcome, but it's certainly fun - and I love the Korean culture in terms of the way they speak, especially the girls - the intonation in their language and voice is lovely to hear as so different to our boring English! It's also funny in places, far-fetched in others, annoyingly badly acted by some, but not others - along with much handheld camera work. The sound effects and music is nicely done, supportive of the tone and suspense here and there - and it's quite nicely shot, claustrophobic often, all inside the school.

I don't know the director Hong-Seung Yoon, nor any of the actors but a number of them do a decent enough and convincing job. The DVD that I saw had subtitles, but you can also get a dubbed version. It's not streaming anywhere that I can see at time of writing, I'm afraid, but the DVD can be bought at the likes of CeX and Music Magpie in the UK, used - or probably new elsewhere - and no doubt it'll pop into streaming services at some point. Suggest you watch out for it!

The Invasion (2007)

I'd never seen this little thriller starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, but stumbled into it on one of the streaming channels this week. It's about an "alien epidemic" which is inflicted on earth which takes over humans, makes them calm, passive and unemotional, but controlled by who-knows-who/what! Sounds quite desirable to me - but the cast didn't think so!

Nicole Kidman is Carol, a psychiatrist, who has a small boy, Oliver, played by Jackson Bond, and they live in Washington. There's a husband, Tucker, played by Jeremy Northam, from whom she's separated and has shown little interest for the last 4 years - but suddenly, infected, he's put himself back in the frame claiming legal rights to spend time with Oliver.

She's also got a doctor friend in the frame with whom she seems to be best friends/girlfriend (neither of them seem too sure)! He's Ben and played by Daniel Craig. Between them, along with their labrat buddy, they try to find a cure whilst not falling asleep if they do get infected - because it's OK to be infected but when you go to sleep it gets to work taking over the body during REM! So stay awake!

People get infected by being vomited on by someone who's already got it! So that's mostly the gore taken care of. Most of the rest of the grizzly stuff is around dead bodies and bodies 'encased' in some sort of goo/netting whilst they are taken over in sleep. It's done well enough. Then as the heat turns up it becomes a race across the city, against the odds, more and more infected people, less and less uninfected, ex-husband whisking child away, mum racing not only to find him as she's his mum, but also discovering that he seems to be immune - as he'd been infected and gone to sleep and is alright.

You get the idea - the kid is the key to sorting it all out and the main players are racing against the clock - and the infected - to crush it once and for all. They're all doing an OK job though not needing to try very hard - it felt a bit like an easy payday sometimes. There are plot holes and not much clarity about what's what really - but it kind of hangs together under direction from Oliver Hirschbiegel, taken from the late Jack Finney's book (and various other films) Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Having said all that it's certainly entertaining if you don't think too hard about it and just enjoy the ride. The pacing is OK until the last 5 minutes of the 1 hour 40 minutes when the editing becomes laughable - they wrap the whole story up in 5 minutes flat, lurching from chaos to calm. Blink and you'll miss it! Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig do a fine job and the little boy, Jackson Bond matched them both during his scenes. All good fun, but sadly quite forgettable.

The Jester (2023)

I almost forgot about this one, now streaming on various platforms. It seems to have been caned by most reviewers but I thought it was OK. Low-budget thriller/chiller with most of the spooks based around the titular character's mask and position in the frame whilst terrorising people!

The Jester guy is genuinely creepy, the music is effective being used behind his acts of creepiness and (somewhat supernatural) ability to inflict gore and nastiness on victims in small-town America at Halloween. It's quite atmospheric at times but with little logic to what's going on in terms of an excuse for a story - just spooks, terror and fun!

Special effects are a bit basic, but that's not the point really - it's less about the gore and more about the sinister creep value. There's a great scene in a One Stop shop (or petrol station maybe) about half way through which is fun. A few jump-scares, mostly brought about by urgent music than visuals, but again, it doesn't rely on that.

There's a series of shorts out there starting in 2016 from the same director, Colin Krawchuk, so I must try to track them down. Michael Sheffield, in the lead does a good enough job as he holds The Jester's body menacingly and Lelia Symington as the lead female, Emma, similarly as our potential victim to get behind. A few beers, Friday night after the pub. Perfect!

Loony Fast Charging for Motorola

Inside the Edge 50 Pro box (at least, here in the UK) there's a 125W TurboCharging brick and a decent-looking USB-C to USB-C cable. Sometimes, just sometimes, not routinely, this can be worth its weight in gold! It produces staggeringly fast charge-speeds, from 0-100% in less than 20 minutes. (Yes, I know there are less mainstream devices that claim faster, but Moto is much more widely sold, globally.)

You seem to need to use their supplied charger to get that max Turbo speed, but my UGreen 100W GaN ain't far behind - unlike Oppo et al where just about anything else apart from their supplied VOOC will drop you down to very slow speeds.

Perhaps there's been a power cut (very common here) in the night and you wake up with no charge. Or you're out sightseeing caning the camera shooting holiday video. Watching a video/film using HDMI-Out/Smart Connect to your hotel's TV. Plug in, have a cuppa or a shower, or perhaps a cuppa in the shower - and Fanny's your aunt! A fully charged phone to get going with. It really is a feature that the Big Boys in mobile need to get (back) onto, even if they are frightened of battery longevity (people routinely charging this way). Or Samsung fires! Time to move on!

This particular phone also has 50W wireless charging available and even 10W reverse-wireless thrown in. (Note: In some regions, it comes with a 68W charger in the box instead of 125W.) At time of writing, the 512GB/12GB Black Beauty version is available via AmazonEU for £385, down from £599,